


Point of No Return

by NealsNeen



Category: The Sinner (TV)
Genre: 3x05, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Choking, Desperate Harry, Emotional Hurt, Part V, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23854408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NealsNeen/pseuds/NealsNeen
Summary: Jamie pays Ambrose a visit. His one last attempt at finding connection.He is spiraling downward in a whirlwind of desperation and loneliness and Harry wants to protect Eli at all costs.Written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo, this fills my "Choking" prompt. I hope you like it. <3
Relationships: Harry Ambrose & Jamie Burns
Kudos: 5
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Point of No Return

Outside Ambrose' rustic stone-house, which was nestled in the woods on the outskirts of Dorchester, Harry and Jamie were glaring at each other.

The front door stood slightly ajar, emanating a cozy light from within. Eli had gone inside after is brief chat with Jamie. Harry had ordered him to in a panicked voice.

He knew and understood how unpredictably dangerous Jamie was. Especially now, after he had lost everything, he was spiraling downward even faster in a whirlwind of desperation and loneliness.

Harry knows he should've never gotten so close. _Why do I do that every time?_

But Jamie's dark side was captivating, fascinating and it had lured him in. _You're not different than I am, you know? Don't start thinking you are._

Now Jamie was standing in front of him, looking at Harry wide-eyed, seeking comfort and sanction in the friendship that Harry had falsely offered him. _You act like you care and then you just switch it off._

„Leave, or I'll have you arrested for trespassing.“ Harry determinedly turns around to walk back to the house.

„Hey Eli, why don't you come on out here, buddy.“ Jamie calls.

And Harry snaps.

He turns around and drives a swinging fist into Jamie's stomach, who doubles over with an audible and surprised grunt, the wind knocked out of him instantly. Before he can recover, Ambrose grabs him by the neck and squeezes with all his strength. He can read an astonished look in Jamie's eyes, who had not expected this forceful outburst from Ambrose. His arms go up to hold onto Harry's wrists. The detective had a death-grip on his throat, cutting his air off. His gaze grows distant and in that moment, everything seems to quite down. Only Jamie's wheezing can be heard. He doesn't struggle though.

The wheezing intensifies and Jamie's eyes slowly travel towards Harry's, who was wearing a feral and utterly furious expression. The younger man's pupils are blown wide, almost no blue of his irises left and his knees start to buckle, but Harry keeps his hold. He doesn't know which force is driving him, he just knows that he has to protect Eli at all costs. _What if I was your brother?_

Harry closes his eyes for a brief second, shutting out Jamie's voice in his head. When he opens them again, he can see that Jamie, who had been trying to gulp in air, had closed his lips and from one second to the next, it's like all his strings were cut. His eyes are sliding closed, his head is falling to the side, his arms are dropping away from Ambrose' wrists and his knees are folding in.

Harry gasps in surprise. _What had he done?_ He quickly shifts his hold from Jamie's throat to the collar of his quilted gilet, before the young man plummets to the ground.

He slowly lowers him down and lays him on his side. Jamie's brown curls are sprawled out on the lawn, his face completely slack. He appears to not be breathing at all.

Panic rises in Harry's chest. He is on his knees next to Jamie and quickly turns around to check, if Eli had come out the front door and witnessed any of this madness. Luckily, it appears he hadn't. He can't allow his grandson to see him like this. Torn between his conscience of what he had just done and the exhilarating feeling of power and freedom while giving into the violence. 

Now determined to reverse the damage he had done, Ambrose desperately shakes Jamie's shoulder and slaps his back at the same time. To no avail. Jamie remains eerily still. Harry turns him slightly onto his back, onto his arm and lifts him a few inches of the ground. „Come on, Jamie, breathe!“

All of a sudden, Jamie's parted lips draw in a ragged, deep breath. His eyes flutter open and he slips from Harry's grip, rolls onto his side and starts coughing and wheezing, desperately filling his lungs with air.

The coughing subsides and Jamie rolls onto all fours, his head bent and his whole body shaking, reverberating from his back to his wavy hair. Both men don't say a word. Jamie is not even looking at Ambrose, too focused on stopping to feel dizzy.

Finally, he stands up and sways in place, before taking tentative steps toward the edge of the forest.

Harry watches him walk away.

Jamie stops and turns around, a menacing smile igniting a spark in his deep blue eyes.

„Harry Ambrose just showed up. It's about time.“

He staggers away into the dark woods. Into the darkness within himself.

Harry knows this was the last chance the young man took to find connection.

Now he had hit the point of no return.


End file.
